Friday, July 24, 2009

Painted Hills Oregon Adventure

This week was adventure time for Tim and I. We took a drive out into Eastern Central Oregon to check out the infamous "Painted Hills". It was hot, it was awesome, I took lots of pictures as always.Here we are with our amazing handcrafted walking sticks that Tim's dad made us (Thanks Doug!!)These painted hills are a result of volcanic activity and erosion. There was a strong wind out in this area that I have no doubt has been part of the unique erosion that left this land so beautiful. Particular metal oxides in the layers of earth create the red, yellow, brown and black stripes.The pigments in the earth here are the same that I have been experimenting with to make colored prints in my glass creations! I could actually look at the hills and say "that reddish stripe is from iron oxide!"The volcanic activity in this area caused a hard natural glass to form as a top crust on this interesting layered land. After erosion the volcanic glass top layer remains - creating a really amazing landscape.It was so hot out in the desert, all the campsites were empty and there were signs everywhere that said "No Fires!". So we continued driving and found an amazing campsite on the East side of Mt. Hood called "Clear Creek". Camping is just not as fun without a big campfire!

And in the morning we were visited by two cows that came to check out the creek by our campsite and the ran accross the water and grazed on some grass in a field. Wildlife!